Kapihan de Zamboanga
By Hader Glang

On citizens identification card system in Sulu

Few days ago, I came across a news report about the launching of the citizens identification card system in Sulu, a collaborative effort between the local government units, the military and the police. The issuance of the IDs to the people is aimed at curbing crimes and deterring terrorism and as a database for local census.

Interestingly, the MILF posted a similar report in its website, quoting a Tausug schoolteacher in Patikul who said "this is to Christianize us silently or at least to insult us being Muslims for carrying the sign of Christianity wherever we go, even inside mosques." According to report, the ID bears the symbol of the cross, which is at the center of the card near the star symbol.

After reading both articles, I had to ask myself if the launching of ID system has President Gloria Arroyo government's blessing? Was it a part of conspiracy of Philippines with US' national identity card system being instituted throughout the world? Or Sulu is being transformed into a "Gulag" state in which the Tausug citizens' sovereignty and independence are gradually eliminated?

These questions may sound a bit naive or silly in light of all the on going critical issues rocking Lupah Sug (Land of Sulu), the military's crackdown on the elusive Abu Sayyaf militant group and MNLF's Habier Malik faction, and of course the upcoming joint RP-US Balikatan Exercise on February 18, which is obviously opposed by Muslims in Mindanao.

But when we look back at the past, we see in clearer picture the things the US and its close ally Philippines on what they have done after the 9/11 terror attacks. In fact, the government of President Gloria Arroyo revived the national ID system plan sometime in 2003, seven years after the adoption of former President Fidel Ramos in 1996.

There was public uproar in that time and the Supreme Court in 1998, upon the petition of a civil liberty minded senator, aborted it when it decided that the presidential order was unconstitutional because "…A.O. No. 308 pressures the people to surrender their privacy by giving information about themselves on the pretext that it will facilitate delivery of basic services."

Subsequently, few days after the simultaneous terrorist attacks in New York World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, President George Bush Jr. also revived the so-called decade proposals for a national identity card system all over the world as a way to monitor and detect every movement and transaction of every citizens suspected of terrorism or of crime.

I can't blame if the Tausug citizens are suspecting that there is hidden agenda behind the issuance of IDs because it was abrupt and no due consultation whatsoever over the ID system. Based on reliable sources, the military supported by the provincial government directly imposed the ID card system on the people against their will.

As what Sulu 2nd District Congressman Munir Arbison, a Tausug administrator lawmaker, said the ID system implementation was only done through a local executive act and does not have the concurrence of the Provincial Board by way of a resolution authorizing the provincial governor to implement it.

Another Tausug, who requested anonymity, also asserted in his text message sent to me, "The ID system imposed on us is unconstitutional and discriminatory." He did not elaborate but called on his fellow Tausugs to oppose it being implemented in the 19 municipalities of the province with Patikul town as a model or pilot project.

Another source claims that the ID system would certainly not prevent terrorism because the citizen card is only as good as the information that establishes identity in the first place. Terrorists and criminals will continue to be able to obtain -- by legal and illegal means -- the documents needed to get a government identification card.

Besides, it would create a false sense of security because it would enable individuals with a card -- who may in fact be terrorists -- to avoid heightened security measures. And it would be very expensive for the provincial government, which lack the resources necessary to fund the implementation of the ID card system.

Let me cut short this long story…why impose the ID system that could only foster discrimination or exploitation by tyrannical leaders to oppress people whom they consider as threat to their continued rule? The people of Sulu have suffered so much since time immemorial. They're very right in saying there are more effective methods to prevent terrorism but not the ID system.

Muslims protest in Mindanao against President Bush sending American troops for RP-US war game

Brandishing effigy showing US President George Bush as a "King of Terrorists," thousands of demonstrators, most of them Muslims, protested in Iligan City on Tuesday against the US president’s sending of American troops for the Balikatan exercises in Mindanao starting this February 18, 2008.

Some 7,000 members of the Multisectoral Movement for Peace and Development and the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Societies, symbolically ‘executed’ Bush effigy on stage and called on the US president to stop sending troops to Mindanao and Sulu.

They also expressed grave concern over the aborted peace negotiation between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and their indignation at some officials of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s cabinet for their opposition to a negotiated peace settlement of the Mindanao conflict with the MILF.

“We denounce Bush for sending his troops for the Balikatan exercises, which be held in Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sulu, Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and other parts of Northwestern and Northeastern Mindanao,” Lacs Dalidig, one of the rally organizers, told reporters.

“We also call on both the GRP and the MILF to resume negotiations and on Bush to stop sending US troops to Mindanao and Sulu,” he added. At the plaza of Iligan City, where they held a three-hour rally, red banners and buntings covered the entire main square.

An effigy of DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno, whom the protesters described as one of the war hawks and ‘War-like Mammal’ in President Arroyo’s cabinet, was also symbolically executed as speakers took turns venting their anger at the images.

Protests in Mindanao were staged since early this month in the cities of Cotabato, Marawi, General Santos City and the latest in Iligan, as part of a series of events to break the most serious impasse to stall the peace talks since negotiations started in 1997.

According to protest organizers, more rallies are to be launched these coming months in Basilan, Pagadian, Zamboanga and Sulu. They consider the Ancestral Domain agenda in the GRP-MILF peace talks as an “opportunity for Mindanawons to revisit our colonial past and correct the historical injustices committed against the indigenous and Bangsamoro peoples in Mindanao.”

“The peaceful lives of the Bangsamoro were shattered by the tremors brought about by the coming of the colonizers” said Sammy Maulana, Bangsamoro civil society secretary-general. “We are not begging anything from the Government, we just want to regain our homeland and restore our inalienable rights to self determination, both as people and a nation."

Cotabato City-based civil society leader Bobby Benito said there is no doubt that the failure of peace talks will lead to violence, chaos and war. “But the people are tired of war. It is anti-people and violates the very core values of all religions and civil society: love, peace, nonviolence.”

General Santos-based Pastor Frank Bantilan said that the indigenous people of Mindanao have been distressed by the sudden impasse of the peace talks. “Muslims and Lumads (indigenous people) are more than brothers, we feel no different pain.”

“We, in the civil society are aware of the fact that majority of people in the grassroots desire for a meaningful result of the peace process, not only to put an end to the ravages of war, but to address the longstanding political problem in a non-violent way,” Benito said.

Meanwhile, Dalidig said, “The failure of peace agreements in the past can be attributed mainly to the non-participation of the Bangsamoro people, because non-participation means they do not own a peace agreement. As real stakeholders, their collective voice should be basis of authority and the last word in the solution of the problem.”

Talks between the government and the MILF hit a snag last December over the issues of ancestral domain and constitutional process, two highly controversial and critical subjects in the talks.

Secretary Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the peace process, assessed the impasse as “among the most serious to stall the rocky talks, a big hump” upon which the GRP has no “magic formula” while “looking for a way out”.

The MILF negotiating panel refused to meet its government counterpart during the 15th exploratory talks last December 15-17 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia because the GRP draft of a proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain supposedly did not contain certain consensus points earlier agreed by the two parties.

The government-negotiating panel recently inserted a provision, which states that the implementation of the agreement will have to follow “constitutional process.” During exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur last year, government and MILF negotiators agreed upon the setting up of a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

This was aggravated by statements from some of the president’s key officials threatening the MILF with sanctions. Secretary Puno was quoted saying, government should not give in to the MILF’s demand for a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) without a plebiscite.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Romero stated a condition that peace talks will not continue without MILF’s disarmament.

Negotiations since the all-out war in 2000 progressed because of mutual agreement that government should not refer to Constitution and the MILF would not demand independence. In September 1996, the Philippine government signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), from which the MILF broke away in 1981.

More than a decade after the signed pact, the MNLF and other critics have accused the Philippine government of lacking sincerity, honesty and political will in fully implementing the agreement and in working for attainment of peace in Mindanao.

The armed struggle of the Muslims in the Philippines can be traced back in history. Mindanao is the birthplace of Islam in the country. The Muslims in the land were indigenous peoples converted to Islam by Arab merchants prior to the country’s pre-Hispanic history.

Muslims resisted Spanish colonization having established sultanates and trade zones. The 1898 Treaty of Paris was the turning point where Mindanao was ceded by Spain to the United States said to be an “illegal annexation and exploitation without referendum, plebiscite or consent of the people (of Mindanao).”

Human rights groups say a number of Muslims in the country at present have suffered intensive discrimination, illegal arrests and other forms of human rights violations after having to migrate up North due to unemployment in the South because of having been alleged to have links to terrorist activities.

USAID-GEM funded road project inaugurated in Basilan

US Ambassador Kenney (left) leads the riboon cutting ceremony of the newly-finished USAID-GEM funded road project in Basilan. She is assisted by Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakkalahul (right) and Tuburan school pupils.

United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney has inaugurated the newly-completed Campo Uno-Tuburan upgrading road project in Basilan, funded by the United States Agency for International Development-Growth With Equity in Mindanao (USAID-GEM).

The new 13.4 km. road provides a primary connecting route for local residents from their municipalities to the Basilan Circumferential road that reaches the rest of the province. Its first 1.3 section starting from Campo Uno (Lamitan) up to Mamboring (Tuburan) has been upgraded by the DPWH-ARMM Basilan District to a concrete-paved road.

The next 1.2 section has been prioritized for improvement (concrete-paving) and is presently maintained by DPWH-ARMM. The GEM-funded part of the road improvements begins in Barangay Mamboring in Tuburan and ends in Languyan, Mohammad Ajul.

The GEM-improved" section of 10.88 km is composed of a few short sections concrete pavement and the rest are gravel or earth roadway. The US government alloted at least P46 million for the road project.

The old road was severely damaged in many sections, which made it difficult foa passenger jeepneys and other vehicles to pass, especially during the rainy season. Poor road conditions increased the cost of transporting goods to market and inhibited passenger travel.

"I see things improving here...this is a good sign...the people are increasingly interested in development," Kenney told reporters in an interview at the project site after the inaugural ceremony.

Prior to USAID's involvement, Tuburan and Akbar Municipalities were quite isolated. The new road will bring about easier access to local markets as well as contribute to the overall peace and security of the area.

To help spur and augment regional economic growth, USAID financed the construction of 40 regional infrastructure projects and 830 smaller barangay infrastructure projects in the ARMM and neighboring conflict-affected areas of Mindanao.

In addition to supporting economic growth, these infrastructure facilities demonstrated the continuing commitment of both the Philippine and US governments to fostering peace and development in Mindanao.

Under the Regional Impact Program, GEM designs and constructs vital projects such as ports, roads, and bridge improvements in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao. These projects are undertaken in partnership with the regional and provincial government, local governments, and agencies.

Lamitan City and the municipalities of Akbar, Hadji Mohammad Ajul (two municipalities created out of tuburan in 2006) and Tuburan are located on the northeast quadrant of Basilan province southeast of Isabela City, the provincial capital.

The three municipalities are composed of thirty barangays with a total land area of 118 square kilometers and a total population of 42,550 (CY 2000 census). The majority of the residents are Yakans and Tausugs.

The difficulty of access contributed to slow economic growth, widespread overty and peace and order problems in the area. The municipalities witnessed multiple conflicts between the military and the Abu Sayyaf and rogue MILF elements in late 2001 and 2007.